


Blue

by curiumKingyo



Series: Color Book [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Athene Noctua AU, M/M, Monochromy, wing!Hermann
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-19
Updated: 2014-02-19
Packaged: 2018-01-13 00:46:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1206613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curiumKingyo/pseuds/curiumKingyo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Newton has a head full of Hermann's greyscale memories and wonders if Hermann ever misses colors. When the mathematician says he doesn't miss what he never had, Newt decides to teach him colors.</p><p>Also known as Newt almost gets depressed, Hermann gets a lump in his throat and I am a spoiled child playing with <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/pickleplum/pseuds/pickleplum">pickleplum</a>'s toys.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pickleplum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pickleplum/gifts).



> Set in the [Athene Noctua](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1118037/chapters/2252127) verse, where Hermann has owl wings and can't see colors.

"Do you miss colors, Hermann?" Newton asks out of the blue in a particularly slow afternoon in the lab. Hermann doesn't even turn to face him, perched in the middle of his tallest ladder.

"This is a ridiculous question, Newton." After a second he adds: "How could I miss something I have never had?"

Newt puts his glasses up his forehead and presses his eyes for a moment. "I don't know dude, I miss things I've never had. Like growing up with siblings, or having school mates the same age as me..." He says, staring blindly at his few last samples floating in tanks. Hermann stops writing and just looks down at him for a moment. He seems truly immersed in thoughts, in a way Hermann had rarely seen even during the war.

Hermann considers his own experience on the matter. When he was a small kid he had problems with his siblings, but he couldn't deny how supportive they were in the dreadful times mankind seemed doomed to end. Not to mention how they kept his secret for decades, always willing to help him whenever he needed. Actually, he can't even imagine how his life would have been if he was an only child...

Slowly, he steps down the ladder and carefully crosses the room until he sits in a chair by Newton's side. He gently taps his cane on the biologist's leg, causing him to jump in surprise.

"I don't miss colors, but I do wonder what would it be like to have them." The mathematician says, measuring his words thoughtfully. "What would be different. Would it change anything at all?" He snorts but a sad smile twists his lips. "I have fought so much for this world and I don't even get to see it fully..."

The silence stretches between them and suddenly Newton begins to shuffle the papers that were stacked over his desk. Hermann frowns a bit but remains quiet, watching as his partner picks a piece of paper that, for him, is a light shade of grey. Newt shakes the paper in front of Hermann's eyes:

"This is blue." He says.

"It is grey..." Hermann replies, trying his best not to roll his eyes.

Newton takes the piece of paper and carelessly brushes it across Hermann's hand: "This is grey." Hermann's eyebrows rise and drop in confusion but before he opens his month Newt leans forward and gently caresses the same hand. "This is blue."

It takes him a second, but when Hermann realises what Newton is doing he feels his throat close a bit and he repeats the gesture, caressing Newt's hand: "Blue." 

"But blue can be like this too." The biologist continues, suddenly opening his fingers like fireworks.

"How?" Hermann asks, his wings vibrating under their bindings. Newt repeats the motion, a smile forming in his lips. "Like this! It can be soft and calming, but also electric and exciting." He pets the mathematician's pale hand and then does the sparkling hand gesture again. "Mako's hair is like this." He wiggles his fingers one last time.

"Do people have blue hair?" Hermann's eyes widen in an almost cartoonish way, and Newt can practically hear him reevaluating his whole knowledge of the world.

"No! I mean, they can have, but they dye it." He is smiling broadly now. "Mako has blue streaks because she dyes it, her hair is black." Hermann seems equal parts disappointed and relieved.

"How is Kaiju Blue?" He asks after a while. Newton purses his lips thoughtfully. "It's like this!" As he speaks he snaps his fingers right in front of Hermann's face, causing the other man to back a little. "It is a dangerous color, it seems like it will eat your eyes. And I'm not talking about toxic fumes here! But it is also captivating? It is hard to look away... Well, at least for me." He laughs a bit and Hermann shares his smile. "It is like a boa constrictor, it wraps pleasantly around you and then... " He snaps his fingers again. "It pierces your eyes, because we call it blue but it is much more..."

He falls silent, memories of the disturbingly beautiful colors of the Anteverse playing in his mind. Hermann's hand touches his softly and he meets the mathematician's eyes.

"I remember the Anteverse blue." Hermann says quietly. "It... it was blue, right?"

Newt nods in silence, hand twisting in Hermann's grip so he can interlace their fingers loosely. "Can it be sad too?" Hermann asks, thumb rubbing circles on the back of Newton's hand.

"Yes. But even when it is sad, it is also soft. It can be melancholic but not depressing. Like this..." He traces the path a tear would follow down Hermann's face with his finger nail. "It kinda tickles but in the wrong way, it makes you want to rub your face and hide for a while. I guess this is why people say when someone is depressed they're 'blue'."

"I like this one better." Hermann caresses Newt's hand softly, smiling timidly at him. Newt smiles back and drops his forehead against Hermann's, closing his eyes for a second. "Newton?" The man looks up at the mention of his name, he stares into Hermann's warm brown eyes. "Are your eyes blue?" Newt smiles again and closes his eyes once more.

"My eyes are the color of the sea..."


End file.
